


Partner

by DragonSorceress22



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, One Shot, Post-Conan Kudou Shinichi, Short One Shot, just me trying to break out of a writing slump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 22:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21204992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSorceress22/pseuds/DragonSorceress22
Summary: Just your classic pre-kaishin team-up type get-together fic.





	Partner

**Author's Note:**

> Beta’d by [solomonara](http://archiveofourown.org/users/solomonara/pseuds/solomonara/works)!

It was a warm day, sunny and clear in late summer, and Shinichi was in the library. As far as he was concerned, it was too hot to do anything outside, and for once he didn’t have any active cases on his plate. He settled in to pick through Yusaku’s files instead. A few hours later he was stuffing a fat packet into his bag and heading for MPD headquarters.

His steps were quick, his pace warding off any degree of small-talk as he headed for Division One. He found Megure at his desk.

“Kudou-kun?”

“Megure-keibu,” Shinichi said, insistent and a little rushed. “Do you have a minute?”

They moved into an empty briefing room and Shinichi pulled the file from his bag. “Do you know anything about this?” Pushing aside handwritten notes and newspaper clippings, Shinichi uncovered a photocopy of a police report. Megure picked it up.

“Ah. Yes, I remember this one.” His eyes slid over the rest of the file where it had spread across the table. “This is your father’s, isn’t it.”

“He had it filed as a cold case,” Shinichi agreed. He did not add that his father barely kept any cold cases – because a case sitting around in the Kudou house never went unsolved for long. This particular file was not only the largest, but also easily the most worn, as though it had been taken out and scoured again and again over the thirteen years since its recorded incident. “Why does the police report list this as an accident?”

Megure let out a low, unhappy sigh and shifted uncomfortably. He put his hands into his pockets then immediately removed them to cross his arms. “When it happened,” he started. “Everyone was ready to call it an accident until your father got involved. He insisted there was more to it, but he couldn’t find proof.”

“Okay,” Shinichi said, only it wasn’t, because that clearly wasn’t the whole story.

“The lead inspector at the time knew Yusaku-kun’s reputation,” Megure went on. “He wanted to help him out but the most he was able to do was suggest documenting it as ‘unsolved’. The press went nuts. The victim was a celebrity, after all. They were desperate for a more compelling story, so a lot of debates cropped up over whether the victim was intentionally killed or if he’d screwed up and died because of a mistake. Then someone suggested suicide.” He reached for his hat and pushed down on it, his eyes shadowed and locked on the floor. “No matter the story, they all turned it back to Yusaku-kun for insisting that it was more than a simple accident. He was forced to back down for the sake of the victim’s family. It got pretty rough.”

“Family?” Shinichi muttered. He’d read about a close friend and assistant who’d been on the scene, but nothing else from the file.

“The victim had a wife and son but they weren’t at the show that night. Thank goodness for that, at least. It wasn’t pretty.”

Shinichi was staring hard at the papers on the table with his hand at his chin until Megure put a warm hand on his shoulder.

“Listen, Kudou-kun. Do your father a favor and keep out of this one. The Kurobas were old friends of your parents and they’ve been through enough. We don’t want the media circus cropping up all over again, alright? Sometimes you just have to let one go.”

*

It was completely unheard of. Never, not once, had someone _successfully _tackled Kaitou KID at a heist, and Shinichi didn’t stop there. KID was flat on his back and Shinichi, panting, desperately out of breath, shoved a pair of handcuffs onto his wrists where he had wrestled them to KID’s chest. The cuffs closed too tight, Shinichi’s hands shaking, but he left them and pressed his palms to KID’s, forcing their fingers to interlock. The face he stared down into showed an expression that was likely as shocked as his own. KID’s cape was spread beneath them on the rooftop, his hat brim bent beneath his head, and he looked at Shinichi as though he’d never seen him before in his life.

“Tantei–”

“It doesn’t count,” Shinichi gasped out. He swallowed hard. “It means _nothing_.” It was bitter and fierce, but then his eyes turned sad. “This isn’t the game. You’re still playing but that’s not why I came this time, KID. I’m dead serious.” He searched KID’s face but found it unreadable – abruptly locked down. He sighed. “Even so, I know I can’t hold you long. It’s not really leverage but please just… hear me out anyway? I need your help.”

KID didn’t soften in the slightest, so Shinichi didn’t know how to feel when he replied, “If you let me go, I’ll stay and listen.”

For a few seconds Shinichi didn’t move, but then he slowly released KID’s hands and backed off of him, getting to his feet. KID stood as well and took just one step back, away from Shinichi and toward the edge of the roof.

“I, uh… I didn’t bring a key for the handcuffs,” Shinichi said with a cringe at where KID’s gloves were creased, pinched tight at his wrists. But then KID shrugged, and the cuffs were gone.

“So?” he asked, massaging his wrists and distinctly avoiding looking at the detective. “What’s so big that the modern day Holmes is asking for my help?”

Shinichi’s hands clenched. “A friend of my dad’s was murdered.”

KID’s eyes flickered toward him then away again. “Not really my department.”

Shinichi shook his head. “I already solved it but… I can’t catch this guy.”

“And you want _me _to? I don’t understand, Meitantei.”

“It’s just–” He took a step closer without thinking and KID tensed, eyes locked on him now. Shinichi froze and raised his hands at his chest. “He’s part of something bigger,” he continued quickly. “Something I think you’ve got some experience with.”

“…That organization,” KID concluded.

Shinichi nodded. “Please, KID. I’ve hit nothing but dead ends. I don’t know where else to look.”

Something in KID’s posture relaxed and Shinichi’s followed suit with relief. “You’ve got a lot of respect for your father, huh,” KID said. “For the Great Detective of the East to be begging a thief for help.”

“You once said he was your favorite magician,” Shinichi tried – a last bid. He didn’t expect KID to freeze up at the words, though.

“_Who_ was?”

“The victim,” Shinichi replied, watching KID with confusion plain on his face. “Kuroba Toichi-san.”

KID took another step back but this time it was no cautious, calculated move. He looked pale, his eyes wide. “You… You’re going after _Snake_?”

“How the hell did you know who–?” He stopped short, teeth clicking together before he demanded, “You’d already looked into this?”

“I didn’t _have_ to. It was clear enough when he came after _me_.”

There was something in KID’s voice that didn’t belong – fear or hysteria or alarm, Shinichi wasn’t sure, but it was making a mess of KID’s poker face. Still, that fit with what was building in Shinichi’s mind. Each piece of information he had now was spiraling and stacking together until it sparked into a blazingly clear picture before his eyes.

“You’re Kuroba Kaito,” he said, mystified. His hand went to his chin, eyes directed to the short span of rooftop between him and KID but not seeing it. “That would make Kuroba Chikage-san Phantom Lady, then. Kuroba Toichi-san… He was the first Kaitou KID.”

And that was as far as he got because the strength of the sleep gas that hit him then was enough to knock him out instantly.

Shinichi started to sit up before he was really awake. He moved slowly, instinctively, groping for assistance but finding only short carpet under his hands and knees. His head was swimming and it only got worse when he opened his eyes, but he caught a glimpse of a figure in white sitting on the floor nearby.

“Ugh. Where are we?”

“My place.”

The response was miserable and muffled. Shinichi dropped back to sit on the floor and got the slight nausea and dizziness of the overpowering hit of sleep gas under control so he could focus on KID. His knees were against his chest, his body folded over them, and his arms wrapped around. With his head down and his cape bunched around him he looked… small.

The image didn’t quite compute, so instead Shinichi’s brain came up with, “Did you kidnap me?”

KID folded in smaller. “I panicked,” he confessed to his knees.

“_You_? _Panicked_?”

“You–!” His head finally came up and one arm waved in an emphasizing gesture. “You named my entire family as phantom thieves! Out loud! At a heist! _You_! If anyone had heard–”

“I’m sorry,” Shinichi cut in quickly. “I didn’t mean to. It all just sort of hit me at once and…” He trailed off then pushed out a sigh. KID was explaining his own actions, not accusing Shinichi of a wrongdoing. Not at the moment anyway. And he’d kidnapped him.

KID watched Shinichi glance around the small sitting room. The apartment was furnished simply, but evidence of Kaito’s day-to-day stood out everywhere. Shoes by the front door, a TV remote on the couch, a deck of cards on the coffee table, a powerstrip stuffed to capacity with plugs and chargers trailing out from behind the TV, and a million other things. Shinichi’s eyes caught on them all even if his brain wasn’t quite up to interpreting just now.

“So,” he eventually said, eyes sliding back to KID. “What now?”

“‘What now,’” KID repeated with a slightly shaky, disbelieving laugh.

“Yeah,” Shinichi said. “This guy murdered your father, Kuroba. Are we gonna catch him or not?” He pushed to his feet and looked down at KID, offering his hand.

Kaito stared up at him, uncertain on too many levels to separate and identify, but there was determination pure and clear in Shinichi’s eyes and KID pulled himself together. When he took Shinichi’s hand and stood, he didn’t let go.

“Okay,” KID said firmly. “Let’s give ‘em hell, Meitantei.”


End file.
